Dynamic Stretching: The Revolutionary New Warm-up Method to Improve Power, Performance and Range of Motion

by Mark Kovacs

RAISE YOUR GAME WITH THIS REVOLUTIONARY STRETCHING PROGRAM

Today’s fitness experts have discovered that both stretching and how you stretch can affect how well you perform on the field, court or track. That is why so many top trainers recommend dynamic stretches.

Dynamic Stretching teaches how to effectively prepare your body for physical activity while simultaneously improving strength, power, speed, agility and endurance. With more than 50 exercises—fully illustrated with step-by-step photos—this book shows how to take your workouts and abilities to the next level:

•Develop full-body range of motion
•Enhance full-body motor control
•Increase flexibility, balance and muscular endurance
•Improve force generation and reaction time
•Correct major and minor muscle imbalances

Genres: Fitness, Health, Sports

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Dr. Kovacs is a performance physiologist, researcher, author, speaker and coach with an extensive background training and researching athletes and elite performers. He is a founder of the International Tennis Performance Association (iTPA), which is the worldwide leader in tennis-specific performance enhancement and injury prevention education and certification (www.itpa-tennis.org). He formally directed the Sport Science, Strength & Conditioning and Coaching Education departments for the United States Tennis Association (USTA) and was the Director of the Gatorade Sport Science Institute. He was an executive with Pepsico. He is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and the iTPA. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed scientific articles and abstracts in top research journals, in addition to presenting workshops and keynote addresses on five continents and well over 100 presentations. Along with his academic and scientific background Dr. Kovacs is also a coach and former professional athlete. He was an All-American and NCAA doubles champion in tennis at Auburn University. After playing professionally, he completed his graduate work at Auburn University and earned his Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology from The University of Alabama. Dr. Kovacs is a Certified Tennis Performance Specialist (CTPS) through the International Tennis Performance Association (iTPA), Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the National Strength and Conditioning Association, a certified Health/Fitness Specialist through the American College of Sports Medicine, a United States Track and Field Level II Sprints Coach and USPTA-P1 Certified Tennis Coach. He has published five books including Dynamic Stretching and Tennis Training: Enhancing On Court Performance. In 2010 he was awarded the prestigious Plagenhoef Award for sport science achievement (youngest ever recipient) and in 2012 he was the youngest ever International Tennis Hall of Fame Educational Merit Award winner. He has worked with more than two dozen top professional tennis as well as dozens of top professional athletes in the NBA, NFL and MLB. His expertise has been retained by major corporations, academic institutions and media outlets including Harvard University, Princeton University, University of Southern California, University of North Carolina, New York University Medical Center, University of Pittsburgh, Pepsico, Gatorade, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, ESPN, NCAA, National Athletic Trainers Association, National Strength & Conditioning Association, American College of Sports Medicine, International Tennis Federation, Association of Tennis Professionals, Women’s Tennis Association among others.
Follow Dr. Kovacs on twitter for the daily information on all aspects of sport science and human performance @mkovacsphd

Reviews

[Idahosa Edokpayi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best way to prep for physical activity that I know of

[Ivan Palacios · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

Very helpful prevent getting hurt, I'm using this Dynamic Stretching in the different sports that I practice I highly recommend.

[Al · Rating 3 out of 5]

De maneira simples e eficaz o livro apresenta os alongamentos dinâmicos, com explicações e ilustrações, o que não evita a pesquisa para um entendimento mais adequado do proposto.

[TL Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Diagrams are easy to follow. I liked the layout. Easy to do, feel helpful. Intro was good too.

[Taro Yamashita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, basic book on dynamic stretching. Could use better photographs (photo quality was OK, the effectiveness of conveying movement actions was mediocre). Spends 20 pages on routines for various sports, none of which is the sport I'm directly interested in, but useful because I understand the demands of many of those sports, and can now figure out how to design program for my sport.

[Nilya · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few new moves. Mostly it's stuff you can pick up during high school sports (or maybe we had awesome coaches). Strangely there were actually a few static stretches (any time you tell me to hold for x seconds, that's static). The pictures were black and white so when the models wear black makes it hard to see what they're doing. Which leg is crossed where, etc.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short and to the point. Basically just a quick explanation of "dynamic stretching" vs "static stretching" and then a box of exercises with their benefits listed. Exercises are detailed with photographs for each part of the movement and the book includes specific movement combinations designed for various sports (football, soccer, tennis, hockey, track and field, etc).